St. Vincent Joins BREATHEWATCHLISTENTOUCH:
The Work and Music of Yoko Ono Performance
at Walt Disney Concert Hall
Friday, March 22, 2019
Special Guests Also Include: Sudan Archives, Amber Coffman, Shruti
Kumar, La Marisoul, Madame Gandhi, Shirley Manson, Nina McNeely,
Kamil Oshundara, Francisca Valenzuela, and We Are KING
Imagine Grapefruits: An Idea Exchange Market Pre-Concert Event
to Take Place Throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall
Part of the LA Phil’s Fluxus Festival, in partnership with the
Getty Research Institute
Photo credit: Nedda Afsari
WHAT:
St. Vincent joins the artist lineup for BREATHEWATCHLISTENTOUCH: The Work and Music of Yoko Ono at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday, March 22. Throughout this exceptional evening, Ono’s art and music will be performed by a diverse group of artists – whose work is informed by Ono’s legacy – in a concert-length celebration of her 60-plus year career. The concert is part of the LA Phil’s season-long Fluxus Festival.
St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, is one of the most innovative and enigmatic presences in modern music. Over the course of her five albums, she has explored emotive ballads, upbeat pop arrangements, and experimental spaces alike, incorporating postmodern guitar solos and electronic pulses that display a sweetly sinister sensibility. A Grammy Award®-winning artist who is critically acclaimed the world over, she has collaborated with artists ranging from David Byrne to L.A. hip-hop producer Sounwave. St. Vincent also recently released her signature Ernie Ball Music Man guitar and made her directorial debut with the short horror film The Birthday Party. Her latest album, MASSEDUCTION, was released in late 2017 and was The Guardian’s Album of the Year, while Jon Pareles of The New York Times named it his #1 album of 2017. MASSEDUCTION has been supported by performances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Graham Norton Show, Later… with Jools Holland, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. MASSEDUCTION won the 2019 Grammy Award® for Best Rock Song and was nominated Best Alternative Music Album. St. Vincent also performed at the 2019 Grammy Award® show with Dua Lipa.
Special guests for this performance also include experimental R&B violinist and vocalist Sudan Archives, singer, songwriter, and former Dirty Projectors member Amber Coffman; Juilliard-trained composer, songwriter, and producer Shruti Kumar; La Marisoul, lead singer of Grammy Award®-winning Mexican-American band La Santa Cecilia; electronic music artist and activist Madame Gandhi; Shirley Manson, lead vocalist of the alternative rock band Garbage; choreographer, visual artist, and creative director Nina McNeely; scholar, queer community organizer, multifaceted artist, and activist Kamil Oshundara; composer, activist, entrepreneur, bilingual singer, and Chilean pop artist Francisca Valenzuela; and We Are KING, who were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album in 2017.
Imagine Grapefruits: An Idea Exchange Market will take place before the concert throughout Walt Disney Concert Hall, starting at 6:30 PM. Imagine Grapefruits is a pre-concert marketplace of ideas where a wide scope of local arts programs, DJs, book presses, and artist collectives led by people of color, women, and non-binary creators will be on hand to share their work and show off the scope of the scene.
Yoko Ono is one of the most influential artistic figures of the 20th century. Her work as a performance artist and musician is conceptually bold and politically confrontational, but it’s delivered with a lyrical touch – one informed by her dedication to peace and spirituality – giving it a great sense of warmth and humanity. That warmth has inspired an incredible range of artists and musicians, and continues to resound today.
Produced in partnership with Girlschool, this concert is named after Ono’s Dance Piece X, a Fluxus score that is a fitting summation of the grace, love, and sense of peace that permeates her career:
“Breathe
Watch
Listen
Touch
and move between
the Earth.”
Fluxus was a wily, nebulous – and deeply influential – anti-establishment art movement that emerged in the 1960s. Comprised of an international collective of artists, composers, and poets, Fluxus aimed to collapse what it considered the false wall between art and life. The LA Phil’s Fluxus Festival is a survey curated by Christopher Rountree, in collaboration with the Getty Research Institute, in which the often humorous, frequently challenging music and performances of Fluxus will be presented on and off-site. This exploration will include a combination of live events, printed materials, and symposia, including surprise appearances, installations, and performances throughout the LA Phil’s 2018/19 Centennial season.
For more information about Fluxus Festival please visit: laphil.com/fluxus
Founded by Anna Bulbrook in 2016, Girlschool is a music festival and creative community with a mission: to celebrate, connect, and lift women-identified artists, leaders, and voices. This is the LA Phil’s first collaboration with Girlschool. For more information about Girlschool please visit: girlschoolla.com.
WHO:
Sudan Archives
Amber Coffman
Shruti Kumar
La Marisoul
Madame Gandhi
Shirley Manson
St. Vincent
Nina McNeely
Kamil Oshundara
Francisca Valenzuela
We Are KING
For full artist bios, please visit: laphil.com/breathewatchlistentouch
WHEN:
Friday, March 22, 2019, at 8PM
WHERE:
Walt Disney Concert Hall
111 S. Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
TICKETS:
Tickets are available at laphil.com/breathewatchlistentouch, in person at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Box Office, or by phone at 323 850 2000.
About the Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under the vibrant leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, presents an inspiring array of music from all genres – orchestral, chamber and Baroque music, organ and celebrity recitals, new music, jazz, world music and pop – at two of L.A.’s iconic venues, Walt Disney Concert Hall (laphil.com) and the Hollywood Bowl (hollywoodbowl.com). The LA Phil’s season at Walt Disney Concert Hall extends from September through May and throughout the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. With the preeminent Los Angeles Philharmonic at the foundation of its offerings, the LA Phil aims to enrich and transform lives through music, with a robust mix of artistic, education and community programs.